The action at Cuadrilla in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and at PR firm Bell Pottinger in central London comes on the first of two days of "mass civil disobedience" which campaigners have pledged to carry out to highlight their stance against fracking.

Activists are currently taking part in a six-day Reclaim The Power action camp in Balcombe, West Sussex, after Cuadrilla began carrying out exploratory oil drilling at the site. Hundreds of campaigners staged noisy protests in Balcombe in the face of a heavy police presence.

"Clearly we are held to one set of legally enforceable standards while some protesters believe that they can set out and follow their own."

Campaign group No Dash For Gas said six protesters superglued themselves to the glass door of Bell Pottinger at 8am and deployed reinforced arm tubes to stop anyone else getting inside.

Another activist climbed the High Holborn building and unfurled a banner bearing the words: "Bell Pottinger - fracking liars".

The protest group claims it has obtained a secret recording of a senior public relations officer at the firm admitting that the effect fracking will have on people's energy bills will be "basically insignificant" and said it was playing the recording on a loudspeaker.

Meanwhile, it said 20 protesters shut down the Cuadrilla site in Lichfield by blockading it with their bodies. It said two people inside the building had also hung banners from it saying: "Reclaim the power" and "Power to the people".

A group of around 20 protesters also demonstrated outside the constituency office of Balcombe MP and Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude.

And hundreds of campaigners gathered for a protest in Balcombe, with a group of activists including several disabled people blocking the entrance to the site.

The road was closed, and officers were effectively kettling protesters into a small space in front of the drilling site. At one point police stormed a line of activists with bicycles chained together.